Printer&#39;s blanket.



F. E. ELLIS. PRINTERS BLANKET. APPLICATION. FILED JUNE 30,1915.

Patented Mar. 11, 1919.

INVENTEI FQflN K E ELI T5 um 02; ATTUQEQ v5 parent,

FRANK E. Runs, 01? REVERE, MASSACHUSETTS.

PRINTERS BLANKET.

asers- 2.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 11, 1919.

Application filed June 30, 1915. Serial No. 37,374.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK E. ELLIS, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Revere, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Printers Blankets, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to printers blankets. The object of the invention specifically is to furnish a blanket suitable for newspaper printing having all the desirable qualities of the commonly used felt blanket, and having in addition the qualities of being impervious to oil and water, and also repellent to the inks used in printing. Briefly stated my invention consists of a printers blanket consisting of a body which may be of woolen fabric, or felt, or other material, or compositions, suitable for printers blankets, and having a surface coating or layer in firm and immovable union with the body, which is not only impervious to oil and water but is also repellent to printers ink.

In the drawings,

Figure 1 is a plan viewof a fragment of a printers blanket embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the same on line 22 of Fig. 1.

The same reference characters indicate the .same parts in both figures. I

Referring to the drawings, a'represents the body of the blanket and b'the surface coating, or face thereof. The blanket body here shown is of simple woven fabric constructionhaving warps c and a filling d, arranged as a plain weave.

The body a of my improved printers blanket consists preferably of a fabric woven from all-wool yarns and formed with a long nap whichis felted on at least one face so that the texture of the weave is not apand to this felted face a coating or layer, presently to be described, is bonded and thus permanently associated therewith so as to from, with said body portion, a unitary fabric. The invention is not, however, to be considered as being limited to thls particular preferred substance and form of the body of the fabric.

The surface coating or layer 6 is formed by applying in plastic condition a compound or composition composed essentially of n1- .trocellulose and castor oil, with a solvent.

The compound may be colored or not as desired. Any suitable pigment or coloring matter may beused according to the color effect desired. The solvent used may be anything which will dissolve nitrocellulose and is at the same time sufiiciently volatile. I may use acetone, amyl acetate, or mixtures containing one or both of these solvents in various proportions; or I may in fact use any other solvent now or hereafter known which will accomplish the purpose of rendering the combination. plastic, and of evaporating after application ofthe composition to the blanket body.

* The castor oil constituent of this compound or composition is provided in order to keep the substance soft and pliable after evaporation of the solvent. The oil thus has the function of an emollient for the nitro-cellulose constituent, modifying the qualities of the latter, which when not thus modified is relatively tough, hard, and brittle. When the solvent has evaporated from the plastic solution, the residual substance is a homogeneous mixture or solution of the nitrocellulose and oil which, when applied to the blanket body in the form of a-layer or film as above described, has a flexible, elastic, smooth, and non-frictional surface, which is repellent to printers ink and is not affected by oil or water.

Castor oil may be thus compounded with nitrocellulose in large quantities and in proportions which may vary within wide limits. According as the proportion of the oil is relatively large or small, the hard and brittle character vof the nitrocellulose is more or less modified; and, as this oil is a non-drying oil, the characteristics imparted by it into the coating composition are substantially permanent.

I have found that a printers blanket sat stituted is sufficiently soft, p iant, and elastic to withstand the shocks and strains of service, while being at the same time sufiiciently firm. However, wide variations from the proportions above named may be made within the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed, according to the char-.

' acter of the blanket body, whether it is hard and closely woven, or is relatively soft and loosely woven, and according also to the climatic or temperature conditions under which the blanket is to be used; it being un derstood that the coating must be sufliciently elastic to stretch without cracking as much as the blanket is capable of stretching, and that a greater portion of the oil is needed to keep the material soft in cold temperatures than in warm temperatures. In fact, any proportions of these ingredients between the limits at which the surface coating is on the one hand too brittle for the required service, and on the other hand is not sufliciently firm, are within the scope of the protection which I here claim.

\Vhile castor oil is the emollient substance which best erves the purpose of making the coating pliant and resilient, and preserving it in this condition, I do not limit the invention exclusively to a coated blanket in which the emollient agent in the coating is this specific oil and no other.

The composition of the sort above indicated may be spread over the surface of the body in a plastic, a liquid or a semi-liquid condition, but preferably in the consistency of a thick paste, by hand or machine and with the aid of any suitable means, as a blade, a spreading roll, or calender ,rolls, etc., where it is exposed to circulating'hot air, by which the compound is soon driedand set. ,One or more subsequent coats or layers of the composition may be applied on top of the first layer in case the latter should not be sufiiciently thick to have the required smoothness and continuity of surface. I am not restricted to any particular thickness of the coating or the number of layers of which the same is composed. Each coat may be, and preferably is, polished after drying, by a. rapidly revolving brush, or other means, which removes loose particles and makes a high luster on the surface. IVhen finished and dried, the surface layer made as above described is smooth, wear resisting, anti-frictional, andinsoluble by water or oil, and is so firmly bonded to the body of the blanket by embedding the surface fibers thereof as to be immovable relatively thereto, and incapable of being removed except upon cutting or breaking the fibers with which it is so bonded. Thus it is impossible for the surface layer to creep upon or separate from the body of the blanket when in use. The composition is too viscous and too quickly set to penetrate at all deeply into the fabric body, or to any extent greater than enough to embed the su erficial fibers thereof.

he blanket protected with the face above described is impenetrable by the oils used in printers ink, and is further so repellent to printers ink, or at least, has so little adhesive attraction, less than the cohesion or consistency of the ink, that the latter will not adhere to it.

I can best explain the special utility and advantage of my improvement by briefly mentioning the objections which it over comes.

The ordinary woolen or felt printers blanket is absorptive of both Water and oil.

In weather when the atmosphere is damp, enough moisture-will be absorbed to cause such blankets to swell appreciably and thereby in effect enlarge the impression cylinders of which such blankets form the covering. A roll of paper which has stood in storage for some time becomes dry on the ends and must be wetted to swell the edges of the paper web so as to avoid danger of the web breaking at the edges due to contraction from unequal drying. Some of the water so applied to the paper is absorbed by the blanket and causes the same to swell at the ends of the. impression cylinder. The effect of any material swelling of the blanket 1s to tear or break the paper.

Then the impression cylinders and the blankets thereon are liable to receive drip,

pings of oil -from bearings, etc., which, soaking into the blanket causes it to become soggy, thereby destroying its natural resilience. Printers inks also contain oil which in time is soaked up by the blanket. Again the rollers used in the printing press, made of compounds of glue and glycerin, sometimes become overheated and melt, particularly in summer. When drippings from such rollers fall on the felt blankets, an accident not at all infrequent, the blam kets are completely ruined.

The felt, blanket on the impression cylinder which supports the paper during the second impression, is ordinarily covered by a tympan cloth of light cotton to absorbthe surplus ink from the first impresison. Tympan clothshave to be frequently changed, as they quickly become saturated with ink. If not frequently enough changed, the ink, and

still more, the oil in the ink, soaks into the All of the difficulties above noted are over-' come by my invention. The face I) or surface coating, being impervious to water does not. permit the blanket to absorb water and swell; being impervious to oil it prevents the blanket from soaking up the drippings of oil from bearings or surplus ink, or the drippings from melted composition rollers. By reason of the difficulty with which ink adhers to the face coating, which I may term the non-adhesive quality of the same, it is unnecessary to use a tympan cloth on the second impression cylinder, because the surface of this cylinder will not take ink from the first impression and Will not cause the impression to slur. The loss of time required to change tympan cloths and the cost of such cloths are entirely eliminated by my invention.

The composition above described may be applied to either face or both faces of the blanket body. In addition to the qualities above described, it has the qualities of great strength and toughness, whereby it may be used on blankets of other sorts than felt blankets, and when used on blankets which are more or less brittle and liable to crack on the surface .when bent, it is adapted to strengthen the same.

WVhat I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A printers blanket consisting ofa body portion of woven woolen fabric having a felted face, and a coating or facing bonded to the said felted face of said fabric and thus permanently associated with said body portion to form a unitary fabric, said coating or facing consisting of a homogeneous mixture of nitro-cellulose and castor oil;

said coating or facing being soft and pliable and repellent to printers ink so as to be adapted to come into direct contact with a freshly printed surface of a paper web with out offsetting or slurring the fresh printing.

2. A printers blanket comprising a woven woolen body portion having a napped, felted face and a facing or coating bonded to and thus permanently associated with said felted face to form, with said face and body portion, a unitary fabric, said facing or coating consisting of a homogeneous mixture of nitro-cellulose and an emollient nondrying vegetable oil; the said facing or coating being soft and pliable, and being also repellent to printers ink, so as to be adapted to come into direct contact with a freshly printed surface of a paper web without oil'- setting or slurring the fresh printing.

3. A printers blanket comprising a body of soft, flexible compressible material, and

a face comprising means for preventing adhesion of ink thereto and thus avoiding offsetting'or slurring thereby of ink freshly deposited on the surface of a paper web passing in contact with said blanket, said means being a layer permanently bonded to the body of the blanket on that side which contacts with such web, and consisting of a flexible, dry and solid composition of nitrocellulose and a non-drying vegetable oil.

.In testimony whereof I have afiixed my signature.

- FRANK E. ELLIS. 

